Registration of human tissue banks could stop millions of samples going to waste

A change in the way human tissue banks are registered should help prevent millions of human tissue samples, that could be used for medical research, from going to waste. All UK human tissue banks will now be expected to register with the new central UK Clinical Research Council (UKCRC) Tissue Directory developed by experts at The University of Nottingham's Advanced Data Analysis Centre (ADAC) in partnership with UCL (University College London). Human tissue samples are donated by patients and collected by researchers and stored in biobanks across the UK. However, researchers intending to undertake research intohuman diseases and conditions are often hampered by an inability to find suitable samples. This change will make it easier for researchers to find suitable samples, and to maximise the re-use of samples provided by patients. The UKCRC Tissue Directory and Coordination Centre was established to coordinate bio-banking activity in the UK. Its flagship product is the directory of biobanks that allows researchers to find biobanks across the UK.